Real-estate agent Paul Chin went before the Passyunk Square Civic Association’s zoning committee this week to pitch his idea to open a coffee shop and bakery at 1149 S. 12th St.

The shop would be mostly grab-and-go with limited seating inside, about eight to 12 seats, said Tina Geary of the zoning committee. Baking would be done on-site and coffee will be come from Green Street Roaster at 19th and Alter streets. Proposed hours are 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, Sundays 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Added bonus: Chin said he’d “have one of his employees walk a 1 block radius daily to sweep up any trash on the streets,” Geary said.

Chin told us that he doesn’t want to show off the renderings yet because the design is still being finalized. One meeting attendee said the design looked like a ’50s diner.

Currently, the space on the first floor is an apartment, one of four in the building. Three apartments would remain upstairs under the proposal.

In other zoning committee news, the plan for apartments at the old Jehovah’s Witness hall at 1235 Federal has been modified to now include only eight apartments. The project will no longer have a new third floor, roof decks or parking. Neighbors on Annin Street worried about the cars exiting from the building onto their street, said a source who attended the meeting. Apartments would all be about 1,100 square feet. A trash room and bike parking would go inside.

2 Responses to Coffee, dessert bar proposed for 12th and Ellsworth

I almost rented that ground floor apartment many years ago. It has some really cool chrome features, so let’s hope they keep those. It was some sort of commercial property over a decade ago, maybe even a bakery-anyone know what it was?